BROOMFIELD — A clean-energy advocacy group wants the state legislature to review and OK a deal that gives control of U.S. 36 between Boulder and Denver to a private consortium — before the 50-year contract is signed.

Drive SunShine Institute has gathered more than 1,000 signatures on a petition asking for a 90-day review of the concession agreement between the Colorado Department of Transportation and Plenary Roads Denver.

“This contract covers a half-century period,” the group’s clean-energy analyst Ken Beitel said. “We have a fiduciary trust to future generations to ensure that what we sign here in 2014 will still be a good deal for the public interest in 2060.”

CDOT is increasingly looking to public-private partnerships to build and manage highways — including C-470 and Interstate 70 in east Denver.

Last year, CDOT struck a deal with Plenary Roads
to complete the second phase of the U.S. 36 Managed Lanes project and then maintain the entire roadway, as well as Interstate 25 from downtown Denver to U.S. 36. Plenary also will collect tolls.

CDOT expects annual U.S. 36 toll revenue to reach $16.8 million by 2035.

Once the contract is signed in February, the public and lawmakers can review it, CDOT spokeswoman Amy Ford said. The contract can be amended if needed.

“That’s something we don’t have any qualms about,” Ford said. “What we are doing now, in the days leading up to the signing, is making sure we are preserving the state’s interest and ensuring we are protecting the needs of the public.”

A bad deal in the agreement could cost Colorado taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and result in bad public policy, Beitel said. “It also could mean low wages for snowplow operators and maintenance workers in order to increase profits of corporate shareholders.”

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